I’m gonna say something that will probably shock a good percentage of girls and beauty bloggers right now: I have never had my nails done professionally. This is partly down to being awkward and the fact that I find making conversation with a hairdresser difficult enough when I’m not face to face with them, but also partly due to the fact that I have good natural nails and am skilled with a nail varnish, so the idea of having to pay for someone else to do what I can do a pretty good job of myself isn’t one I’m too keen on.
So instead I spend my money on nail varnish in every shade under the sun.
The problem I do find though is that I’m clumsy, and have a tendency to smudge or chip at least one nail within the first two days of a fresh paint, so when I recently discovered my love of KIKO nail products, and then they ran a buy 3, get 3 free offer, I decided to try my luck with an ‘at home’ gel manicure.
First impressions
I chose the shade Milk Mint, and its exactly what I expected it to be based on the online image. I’d describe it as one shade lighter than a Tiffany’s box, and I love it. The packaging is cute, but I worried that the lid was going to be a little bulky to hold while painting, but lo and behold, the silver cap actually pops off to reveal a less pretty but more practical sized lid – yay!
Application
This is genuinely no different to any other nail paint. Slap on two coats of colour, give it 2 mins then one layer of top coat and you’re good to go after a few minutes of air-drying. Simples.
Wear and tear
Like I mentioned earlier, the first few days are always the riskiest ones for me, but I didn’t have a problem at all; not a smudge, not a chip. I then road-tested it to the max as I then spent my weekend doing DIY.. I’m gonna be honest, they’re not intact, but they held up very well considering I was moving bulky furniture, painting, filling, sanding and all sorts. The clear difference I would note is that with the gel topcoat, rather than chipping like most nail polish, it tends to peel off in larger portions – an incident with some masking tape took of half a nail in one go, oops!
Had it not been for the DIY, however, I am really impressed with the results! Some nails did remain intact, and in comparison to my regular KIKO smart nail lacquers, they definitely lasted longer and kept cleaner and neater.
What I loved most was the fact I didn’t have to do anything special – no UV lights, no special remover, just straight foward nail care that just lasts longer! Oh, and they’re on sale at £5 at the moment, who wouldn’t love that?
Lottie Does 